Main menu

You are here

Somalia

HARGEISA - Asha Ali Ibrahim, 41, has been performing female genital mutilation (FGM) on girls in Diaami, Hargeisa and other parts of Somalia since 1997. July and August are her busiest months of the year. "This is the peak season, when parents bring their children to be cut," she told UNFPA.

It is eight o’clock in the morning. As punctual as ever, Jamila Ali Hassan, 30, opens the creaking door of the Dairy Retail Cooperative in the Melkadida refugee camp, ready to receive the farmers who beat a path to the door.

MORODIJEEX - It was early morning when a young sheikh, Abdi Iidan, and his wife joined the long queue leading to a tent in Morodijeex, Somaliland. Mr. Iidan stood out from the crowd; women dominated the queue. They were seeking reproductive health services, offered through a UNFPA-supported campaign targeting marginalized populations.

An upsurge in global conflicts and brutal war tactics continues to make children extremely vulnerable to recruitment and use by armed groups, the United Nations warned today, appealing to the international community to take greater responsibility for the boys and girls used as child soldiers or risk failing to protect them.

The most senior United Nations officials are urging the world to eliminate female genital mutilation (FGM) by 2030, calling it a "violent practice" that scars girls for life, endangering their health, depriving them of their rights, and denying them the chance to reach their full potential.